Discussion Topics for Today's Classroom

Posts Categorized: 3D

AT&T and Verizon announced this week they will start selling a holographic smartphone later this year. The Red Hydrogen One smartphone is the first phone from video equipment company Red. The Android phone’s killer feature is a “holographic display” that projects 3D images that can be viewed without special glasses. You will be able to… Read more »

In Texas, tucked behind a house for the wealthy, perhaps lies some hope for the significantly less so. More than a billion people in the world go to sleep each night without reliable shelter. But a pair of companies working on solving that believes their model of quickly 3D-printing a one-story house could not only… Read more »

According to the company Apis Cor, the body of this 409 square foot house was built in 24 hours by a 3D printer in Russia. And they are not the only company experimenting with 3D printed homes. Source: CNN Date: April 13th, 2017 Link to video: http://www.cnn.com/videos/cnnmoney/2017/03/24/3d-printed-houses. Discussion 1) 3D printing is changing everything. How might you introduce… Read more »

COMPUTERS USED TO require entire buildings to operate. Now they fit in our pockets. Similarly, factory-size electronics manufacturing is approaching a contraction. Want proof? Look at that $50 printer on your desk and imagine, instead of using it to spit out a hard copy of that thank-you note, that you used it to print some… Read more »

Source: BBC Technology news Date: February 25th, 2016 Link (includes a video): http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35638096 Discussion 1) What might some differences or issues arising with a 3D printer being in space and not on earth 2) What materials can be printed by a 3D printer?

A US company is using a combination of computer aided design, 3D fabrication and stem cells to create bone replacements. EpiBone uses a CT scan of the area needing a bone replacement and produces a scaffold from an animal bone which has been stripped of all its cellular material. Stem cells taken from the patient’s… Read more »

A start-up company based in London is offering to print out chocolate lollipops modelled on customer’s heads. Source: BBC News Date: December 8th, 2015 Link to video: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34963592 Discussion 1) It is noted in the video that you can already print in chocolate, but this company prints a mold, and then uses a mold to make the chocolate… Read more »

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in the US, have adapted a low cost MakerBot 3D printer to print with biological materials. The team hope their work could one day lead to a world in which transplants are no longer necessary to repair damaged organs. Source: BBC News Date: October 27, 2015 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34505242 Discussion 1) The video talks… Read more »

The Smithsonian creates the first ever 3D printed portrait of a head of state. Source: CNN Date: December 11th, 2014 Link (to paste into browser): http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/politics/2014/12/03/obama-3d-head-wh-gov.cnn.html Discussion 1) Why is creating and printing a 3D portrait of the President of the United States a useful thing to do? 2) Consider ways in which you could… Read more »

3D PRINTERS are not just being used to fabricate small plastic toys. Researchers are now experimenting with ways to use the technology to build full-scale buildings. Source: The Economist Date: November 7th, 2014 Link: http://econ.st/1mRPuYi Discussion 1) The pace of building with a 3D printer is painfully slow. Where might this technology actually be useful?… Read more »